by Massive Voodoo

Hey Jungle People and Voodoo People,

this week's tutorial voting
saw a really close contest between two fresh and cool articles. The
winner of the voting (counting this morning) is by far obvious. Davidè
vs. Goliath had 13 votes and the crashed X-Wing 19 votes, which makes "X-Wing" the
winner.

I came upon that X-Wing as a gift by one of my students at a painting class. Chris gave it to me with the intention that I can paint it when I want to and do whatever I like. Well, about two years later I ditched him out of my drawers. Why?

I found this on the street the other day:

Actually, while finding dirt on the street it should not reason you to start a project each time. This would just lead to many projects packed with garbage or garbage projects. Well, in this case it was an old piece of cardboard. It was found close to our studio while walking to work and it is a little thicker than usual cardboard as it is task is to hold concert poster or else. It seemd to be swollen by water once in the past, but the day I found it, it was completly dry, stretched out in the sun. I took some of it as I really enjoyed the structure on its back:

Instantly I saw an alien planets surface, cut out a piece and glued it to a wooden plinth. Unpacked the X-Wing, let him crash to the place with destroying pieces of it. Ripped of more tiny cardboard parts to make the surface not only plain and to recieve some additional parts to pour on the actual crash area. Debris.

As I did want to repaint the prepainted X-Wing it was already known to me to prime the whole scene.
As you can see above I added a small pilot figure. In fact it is not a pilot figure, it is just a sitting man in scale 1:100 (I guess). I found him in a local art store, selling also architect models and he is only one from many others. All sitting. This one seemed most fitting for what I had in mind.

I am not sure if you can get these models elsewhere, as they are not branded by a company, they just come in clear zip-locks and that's it. I remember, that the company "Preiser" is also selling miniatures in Scale 1:100.

Allright, primed black, used the airbrush with orange. Why? No idea, got that feeling of a desert planet so I am checking for my main athmosphere I want to add to the scene. Pfft! Pfft!

I did several applications with the airgun to recieve a covering color. Then I painted the X-Wing in a cold grey tone. Now you might ask: Roman, which cold grey? Which brand? I will not answer this in the way you wish for:

White + black + blue = Cold Grey
(more white than black to keep it bright)
(the blue does not matter, use one you like, make it personal)

Followed by this the whole base recieved a wash with Army Painter strong tone. Also the X-Wing. Then I had the great idea to add A BB-8 Unit to it. I used a waterfilter ball for its mainbody, cut another one in half as its head. Waterfilter balls?

How did I cut it in half?
With a sharp blade and eye, one of my fingernails was holding the ball in place while a swift stroke of the blade ended his time as a full ball.

I did cut another one in half to add as the pilot's helmet.
Followed I imagined the bored and annoyed pilot to sit and wait while the BB-8 runs wild, leaving tracks in the desert ground while examinating the damage taken during the crash.

I did not like that idea at all.
Also I found out that this X-Wing model did not carry a BB-8. It carries a R2-D2 unit. So I removed the BB-8, thought about keeping it, but lost it under the table :D

Repainted the base in colors I enjoyed more. Some desaturated green with gentle yellowish highlights on top. I liked that way much more.

Allright then, I was closing in.Now time for details on this tiny vessel.
Sometimes I ask myself how I dare to sit down and destroy my eyes like that. Painting smaller, than usual in miniature painting. Just going really tiny in scale and adding a light situation, weathering and detals. I have no idea, but I really like to hear traditional japanese music to it. It calms my soul and steadiest my hand.

A big part of it is training.
How can you train this? Well sit down, paint thin lines, many of them. Train your skills, the brush movement, the amount of water. Do this for a while, grow better on it. Same with tiny dots. Like Jörg had to do during the last private coaching with Roman: Training!
For example you can see how the pilot recieved highlights on his orange clothes, sunglasses and even that tiny helmet recieved a visor, just black.

Next steps was adding stronger edge highlights to the vessel. My tip here is using rather thick color on a tiny brush (using a W&N Series 7, long, size 000) for this task. In fact, pick up some color and place your paint how you want to place it, boom, slap and then get the next paint to your brush. You regularly have to pick up fresh color to paint such tiny lines and dots. If you use to watered down colors or glazes you will not get the color line look sharp and strong. You have to paint it over and over and again without the result of it looking sharp.

Pilot's helmet recieved a highlight in the visor, a red stripe on top, I used some plastic remains and glued them next to the helmet. Painted them as the pilot's shoes (just dark grey/black) as he is sitting there barefoot.

Then I used a dark brown (Brown + Black) and added scratches and tiny dots here and there. Places where the vessel took damage during the crash. That's an interesting point right now: Where did it take damage? You gotta think about it before placing it. Was it crashing down directly or was it sliding through a alien stone desert or was it gently going down. Think. Imagine. Paint. A lot of these scratches and damages recieved an edge higlight too with white agian.

For the red marks on the wings I used well, red painted them on top then went back to the cold grey and added damage to the paint there too by just making scratches in the reds.

OH MY GOD, MY PAINTING LOOKS LIKE A PAINTING!
That X-Wing is truely tiny and my painting looks like it should in a zoomed in picture: Like painting! I used some black color too to add to the damage.

Well, R2-D2.
I did not look forward to it, but it was worth the effort. I used a small piece of round plastic card for the main body, cut a waterfilter ball in half again for the head, glued it, used two plastic card parts as the legs and done. Painted to simulate the look of R2-D2 in this tiny scale.

The pilot looks really rough in a big picture, but well believe me he is tiny. I missed his mouth, dayumn! Could have added him smiling or sad. Damn, I missed out an important line of paint, but well, maybe everything happens for a reason. No idea if the shoe idea worked out easy to understand, but in real it looks a little more ... uhm, fitting in place as the scale works best not in big photos but in real.

Final step was adding glowing areas to the stranded vessel by using
Model color Flou Magenta and reds and oranges. Dot here and here:

I hope you enjoyed the small walkthrough and found a tip here and there.
I really enjoyed the project! Let me know your thoughts.

Comments:

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for
SbS: Crashed X-Wing

Loved this piece when I saw it in Beckingen: so tiny, but so full of stories. And also love the street-trash-inspirational moment! Where others see just a dirty cardboard, some other actually see an alien planet... fantastic XD

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... MASSIVE VOODOO’s jungle, where some apes share their thoughts and ideas around their beloved passion, the hobby of miniature painting and sculpting.

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